Marc Polmans was disqualified from Shanghai qualifying after hitting the umpire with a ball. He had match point, & launched the ball out of anger. The ball hit the umpire at a very fast pace. Disqualified immediately. Wow.
Marc Polmans was disqualified from his qualifying match at the Shanghai Masters after hitting the umpire with a ball on match point.
The Australian tennis player was the fourth seed in qualifiers and had come back from a set down to win his first round against Alibek Kachmazov 3-6, 6-3, 7-6. He then faced eighteenth seed Stefano Napolitano in the second round.
Polmans was playing well against the Italian and had secured the first set 7-6. The score was 6-6 in the second set and the 26-year-old was 6-5 up in the tiebreak when the incident occurred.
Polmans was on match point but lost it after hitting the ball into the net which leveled the tiebreak score. In his frustration, he angrily hit the ball onto the ground while in close proximity to the umpire's chair. The ball then bounced up with force and hit the umpire at a fast pace.
As a result, Polmans was given an immediate default, causing him to miss out on the main draw of the ATP 1000 tournament. Meanwhile, his opponent Napolitano will enter the draw instead, where he will face Kazakhstan's Beibit Zhukayev in the first round.
Tennis fans have since taken to social media to share their thoughts on the incident, saying it was a clear example of why players need to somewhat control their emotions on the court.
"100% deserved, players need to be held accountable for their actions, hope he gets a hefty fine on top of it," wrote one.
"And hence we need to control our emotions!" added another.
"Don’t think he was aiming at the umpire, but he knows the rules and he broke them," another commented.
The main draw of the Shanghai Masters begins tomorrow, October 4, and ends on October 15.
Marc Polmans was disqualified from Shanghai qualifying after hitting the umpire with a ball. He had match point, & launched the ball out of anger. The ball hit the umpire at a very fast pace. Disqualified immediately. Wow.